Today’s notice: Trouble in Republican paradise. A threat to blue states’ SNAP funding. Building a backlog at the NLRB. Plus: Democrats are fighting over TN-07.
THE LATEST
A House divided: Some intraparty frustration is “natural in the body of 200-plus elected officials, but I do think that, you know, there are some factors that have made it more severe than normal,” Rep. Kevin Kiley told NOTUS of the Republican infighting breaking out in the House these days. Our Oriana González and Reese Gorman report that yesterday’s closed-door GOP conference meeting became an airing of grievances.
The focus of the grumbling is Mike Johnson. Some in the meeting scoffed at the speaker’s talking points for his conference, such as his take that Republicans will not only keep their majority but actually expand it in the midterms.
“And I believed I was going to date the prom queen,” one senior House Republican told NOTUS in response.
But Republicans are also mad about a lot of other stuff. “The group of people who get things done is now smaller, and the group of celebrities is now bigger,” another veteran House Republican grumbled. People are over it — of the 39 members who have announced so far they’re not running again, 23 are Republicans.
You don’t have to take our word for it. A lot of this infighting is happening out in the open. Rep. Elise Stefanik is in the middle of (another) spat with Johnson, right there online for anyone to see. There’s the Marjorie Taylor Greene of it all, too, of course. And at the Tuesday conference meeting, Ori and Reese report that Rep. Byron Donalds was happy to call out Steve Scalise over the bipartisan SCORE Act in front of their colleagues.
Open tabs: FDA’s top drug regulator submits resignation (Politico); Trump vows to overhaul Dulles. An early target: its ‘people movers.’ (WaPo); Netanyahu asked Trump for more help in pardon push (Axios); US-Russia talks were ‘constructive’ but work remains: Putin adviser (AP)
From the campaign trail
Every silver lining has a cloud: As predicted, the Democratic nominee for a special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District wildly over-performed what any Democrat should expect to draw in the deep-red constituency. And, as predicted, state Rep. Aftyn Behn lost anyway. Some Democrats argued over whether this was a smart battle to fight — but they ended up leaving it all on the field in a race that looks like it was actually competitive.
So the argument is now over how the race was run. “Voters wanted another Conor Lamb and they got a rally with AOC,” centrist WelcomePAC leader Liam Kerr told NOTUS’ Alex Roarty. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did stump for Behn, as did Kamala Harris and DNC Chair Ken Martin. Lamb, of course, is the former Pennsylvania congressman who flipped a Trump-backing district in a 2018 special election.
Oh, snap: “Because of the politically toxic positions she’s taken, the Behn campaign ran with anvils weighing them down. Yet far-left groups continued to tout her as the model for how to win elections,” centrist Democratic group Third Way blasted out after the results came in.
The left is not having it. “Aftyn Behn’s close result tonight is further proof that people want a different kind of politics — one that prioritizes working people, not billionaires,” the Working Families Party, which backed her in an ad, said in a statement.
Feeling unblasted is Republican Matt Van Epps. Top GOP officials, including Trump, stood strongly with him, and he won. That absolutely gives the president something to crow about, and you can expect him to do it.
From the White House
The No Subtlety immigration policy: “I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason,” Trump said of Somalis at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, another if-another-president-said-it moment in a term that has had many. Trump was serious — he called Rep. Ilhan Omar “garbage” and said many of her fellow immigrants from Somalia were ungrateful complainers.
This is not just rhetoric. The administration has taken a number of immigration actions that are already making waves: pausing green card and citizenship applications for immigrants from 19 countries already on Trump’s travel ban list, canceling naturalization ceremonies and stepping up operations targeting both Somali and Afghan migrants.
No more SNAP funds: That’s what at least 21 Democratic-run states can expect from Trump’s USDA if they don’t turn over data on who receives the benefits.
What the USDA is saying: “We have sent Democrat States yet another request for data, and if they fail to comply, they will be provided with formal warning that USDA will pull their administrative funds,” an agency spox told NOTUS’ Raymond Fernández after Secretary Brooke Rollins announced at the Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the pause is set to start next week.
The states have argued that the demand is illegal and sued the Trump administration because of it. A federal judge in San Francisco in October granted them a preliminary injunction, making it unclear if Rollins even has the power to take the action in the first place.
From the Pentagon
Safe space: Lawmakers from both parties that still want answers following a Washington Post report that Pete Hegseth ordered an illegal “double-tap” drone strike will have to ask the hard questions themselves.
The Pentagon’s new influencer-heavy press pool (which included Laura Loomer and former Rep. Matt Gaetz) largely ran interference for Hegseth yesterday during its first briefing.
A reporter for LifeSite, a far-right Canadian publication, asked whether the Pentagon would take “legal action against” WaPo for its report. Influencer Jack Posobiec questioned why GOP Sen. Roger Wicker would investigate “one of President Trump’s own Cabinet members.”
NEW ON NOTUS
Don’t hold your breath: “Anyone who wants to get a case stuck right now can get that case stuck,” Lauren McFerran, the NLRB chair during the Biden administration, told NOTUS’ Jade Lozada of the agency under Trump. The board doesn’t have enough members to have a quorum, meaning workers’ appeals are getting stuck.
“When they open up for business, it’s going to be crazy town over there,” a former NLRB employee said.
‘No conflicts’: Stephen Miller and his immediate family dumped seven figures’ worth of stock this August — including shares of several defense contractors — to comply with federal conflicts-of-interest rules and laws, according to a new ethics document uncovered by NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal.
“Stephen divested from stock holdings early in the administration,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. “There are no conflicts.”
More: New FBI Whistleblower Report on Kash Patel’s FBI Echoes Months of Complaints, by Jose Pagliery
Democratic Candidate Will Run for Rep. Chuy García’s Seat as an Independent, by Daniella Diaz
Sen. Katie Britt Pushed Trump’s Renominated NASA Nominee on Past Comments, by Reese Gorman
Anna Paulina Luna Moves to Force a House Vote on Congressional Stock-Ban Bill, by Taylor Giorno
NOT US
- Doughnuts and Bullets: The Absurdity of Working for RFK Jr., by Kerry Howley for New York magazine
- The Democrat who refuses to gerrymander, by Brakkton Booker for Politico
- Rotating Beds and Cellphones, Maduro Plans to Outlast Trump, by Anatoly Kurmanaev for The New York Times
MEET US
Welcome to “Meet Us,” where we introduce you to a member of the NOTUS team. Jade Lozada is a NOTUS reporter and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow covering economic policy and Wisconsin politics.
Hometown: New York
Past work: I was a weekend correspondent for The Boston Globe and later a summer Metro desk intern there. I have also interned at GBH News, the AP’s United Nations bureau and an independent news site in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Why journalism: There’s no other career where I can learn so much about other peoples’ lives and work.
NOTUS + AJI highlight so far: Reporting on the shutdown impasse finally breaking!
Thing you can’t live without: Chipotle mayo
Best advice you’ve ever been given: Nothing worth doing is easy.
Thank you for reading! If you like this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@notus.org. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@notus.org.
Don’t miss the stories shaping Washington.
Sign in
Log into your free account with your email. Don’t have one?
Check your email for a one-time code.
We sent a 4-digit code to . Enter the pin to confirm your account.
New code will be available in 1:00
Let’s try this again.
We encountered an error with the passcode sent to . Please reenter your email.